The promise of another season will have to wait another week for the Plymouth Wildcats.

Friday’s season opener against Utica Eisenhower proved less than satisfying for veteran head coach Mike Sawchuk and his squad, as the visiting Eagles rolled to a 28-7 win on the varsity turf field at Plymouth-Canton Educational Park.

“(Eisenhower) is a good team we’re playing,” Sawchuk said. “Do I think they’re three scores better than us? No. They were tougher than us and they were more disciplined than us tonight.”

To that end, the Wildcats were penalized for a pair of 15-yard personal fouls, derailing some of the slight momentum the Plymouth offense was able to generate in the first half — which ended with the Eagles leading 7-0.

Not to mention interceptions and fumbles that conspired against any sustained offense.

“Our defense did a great job; we were on the field all night,” Sawchuk said. “But every series, with the offense, we’ve got to do some work.

“We got to have more of an attitude and we got to get first downs. But you can’t blame it all on that.”

The Wildcats had an encouraging start when senior defensive back Alan Farmer jumped up along the sidelines to intercept a Max Wittmer pass, ending the game’s first series on a positive note.

But the game remained scoreless until the final minute of the opening quarter.

Wittmer connected with Ryan Chargo on a 77-yard touchdown catch and run. Chargo grabbed the ball over the middle near midfield, then busted his way down the left sideline into the end zone.

Eisenhower never trailed after that.

Still, there remained hope on the Plymouth sideline as the second half opened.

Unfortunately for the home side, a miscue on a fourth-down play set the tone for a tough final 24 minutes.

The punter, Farmer, took the snap, but instead of kicking away, ran forward. An Eisenhower player brought him down at the Plymouth 32 to give the Eagles great field position.

Sure enough, three plays later, senior Jacob Albrecht busted a run around right end for a 16-yard touchdown to make it 14-0.

“It’s just a rugby punt, we get pressure, he’s supposed to ... get rid of it,” Sawchuk said. “I don’t know if he thought maybe he could get the first down.

“But that’s something I have to fix. I’m not going to blame it on him.”

Plymouth did respond on the next series, with a 68-yard kickoff return by Isaac Emminger giving the Wildcats the ball inside Eisenhower’s 30.

On the next snap, Wildcats senior quarterback Jonah Peterson lofted a spiral into the end zone, where it was hauled down by senior wide-out Chase Timko for the touchdown. Booting the extra point was Erli Metko, slicing the deficit to 14-7.

“I just saw the ball come up to me and I went up and had to make a play for the team,” Timko said. “I came down with it and tried to get something going.”

Eisenhower, unfortunately, came right back and scored again. The defense bit on a Wittwer fake and the quarterback then threw a deep ball over the middle to Chargo for a 25-yard score.

Plymouth’s offense could not turn on the jets after that, however. Peterson was picked off by John Stroble to end one series later in the third.

And in the fourth, down 21-7 and with junior Zach Beadle in at QB, a fumbled snap on fourth down led to the game’s final TD — a 39-yard strike from Wittmer to Benjamin Mets with 5:31 remaining.

“We worked our tails off, the linemen worked their tails off,” Timko said. “But we just didn’t execute in crunch time, fourth down, third down we didn’t make plays.

“We’re still growing, we’re still getting better. It’s going to be good.”

Sawchuk, meanwhile, guaranteed it will be a different Plymouth team on the field for Week 2, when the Wildcats host Walled Lake Central (6:30 p.m. Thursday, on the JV grass field).

“You can’t forget this, you got to remember what you did,” he said. “But you got to watch film and you got to get better. The only way I know how to do it is dig my heels in and grind.